Something Borrowed, Something New
by HecateA
Summary: Who doesn't love a good wedding? Drabble series. Multichapter.
1. Veil

**Happy birthday to my fantastic girlfriend! (at least in my time zone). W** **e actually met exchanging PJO headcanons, and I'm pretty sure a bunch of stories on my profile are already dedicated to her. One of the topics that comes to us rather frequently is wedding headcanons.** **So babe, this is my gift to you: a series of drabbles about weddings. Right now there are 30 something chapters planned out, but I'm 90% sure that as soon as you realise I've posted her birthday story, you're going to give me a list of 30 more chapters to write- so who knows how long this is going to be.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own any of the following characters. S** **ome of the drabbles are based on prompts from a list titled "a bunch of wedding slash engagement themed prompts" by tumblr user** plynis, **and I'll make sure to specify which ones.**

 **Dedication: to M, because I am dating a giant ball of Cheese. I hope you love this story half as much as I love you.**

* * *

 **1\. Veil**

Sally was mostly unimpressed by bridal shopping as a whole. She and Paul were both enrolled in the school of thought that now that they'd decided they were going to get married, they should get it done and over with. Unfortunately society and the strangely enormous (and judgy) Blofis clan had other ideas and they somehow needed a ceremony and a reception and three different kinds of bridal showers and even a brunch for some reason.

They put their heads down and ploughed through it, which is how Sally approached bridal shopping until her trio of high school best friends reborn as bridesmaids told her to calm herself and look in the mirror for a second. So yes, Sally did cry when she saw herself in the wedding dress she knew she'd later buy. Yes, she cried even harder when her girls announced that they were going to pitch in to split the price four ways. Yes, she texted Paul's gay best friend a picture and she knew that he'd cried even harder. But the fact was that she didn't think of the veil.

"Can't I just borrow one of yours?" Sally asked her friends.

"Mine tore during the reception, remember?" Cath said.

"I used my mother-in-law's," Tonie shrugged.

"I eloped," Brigit smiled sheepishly.

"Come on Sally," Tonie said. "You're doing this right, aren't you? Get a veil?"

Sally always sustained that her veil was beautiful and classic and yes, okay, her stupid best friends were right, she was _glad_ she'd gotten one. But it was picked basically at random, as an after-thought. She didn't know just how much love would end up wound up with the soft, fine tulle.

* * *

She'd seen Annabeth wear sneakers with her torn Target dress the first time she and Percy had gone to a fancy museum exhibit at age 13, Percy just as awkward in his button shirt. Then Annabeth had progressed to a nice, clean dress when they hit 15 and she'd gone to a university even with her father- or so it was according to the pictures Percy showed her. By the time Percy and Annabeth had started dating, Annabeth was a master of running and concealing weapons and even more important feeling comfortable in dresses as opposed to forced and restricted and trapped. When prom came around it was glorious and Annabeth had even donned daring, regal heels borrowed from Reyna underneath the long and beautiful sheath of her dress.

Sally hadn't expected all of this progress and growing up to result in her sitting in a bridal boutique as Annabeth stood on a pedestal while a tiny lady busied herself with pins and needles, but she wasn't complaining.

Annabeth, Katie and Piper were filling in Reyna and Hazel, who had just arrived in New York, about the broad details that they'd already planned out such as menu and venue (the wedding was in, let it be known, four months and Sally hadn't yet seen any overwhelming concern or finer detail planning on behalf of her kids).

"Well, because Hera hates us we _do_ have to keep it traditional enough," Annabeth said. "We can't afford having her storm in like the Evil Queen and curse our firstborn, you know?"

"Not with your luck, anyways," Piper said.

Still, they'd managed to incorporate themselves in their nuptials rather well. They were getting married at the Chelsea Piers Lighthouse- somehow the perfect blend of historical architecture and all things nautical. They'd found out that Chiron could legally officiate weddings and had already asked him. The ceremony would last about twenty minutes to form the perfect ratio with a ten hour, open bar party. Annabeth currently looked beyond beautiful in a light, airy wedding dress that was simple enough not to create a fuss or a bankruptcy, but complicated enough in its pinning and shape to yell out 'architect, architect!'

"That's a beautiful dress," Hazel repeated again. She'd been in Vancouver when they went bridal shopping, so she was still dumbfounded by how beautiful Annabeth looked. Sally couldn't blame her, she was too.

Annabeth only smiled in the mirror as an example.

"I'm surprised you went so quickly," Reyna said. "Dress, shoes, everything is already done. Percy even has a ring."

"Wait- veil," Piper said. "I'm sorry, my cabin used to overflow with wedding magasines. Do you have a veil?"

Annabeth frowned. "No, not… Not really…"

"Oooh," Piper said. "Hera's going to be _pissed."_

"Will she?"

"Jason was on Olympus recently for _pontifex maximus_ business and I went with him and she saw me and I got all the scoop," Piper said.

"I don't want to _buy_ a veil just because Hera's a-"

"Let's not say mean things in a bridal shop," Katie intervened soothingly.

Annabeth exhaled instead, but the sigh spoke for itself.

"Did you want to use mine?" Sally asked.

"What?" Annabeth asked.

"I still have my wedding veil in a box somewhere," Sally said. "Do you want to use it? It's fairly plain, it'd go well with your dress as well."

"Yes," the seamstress piped up. "Use mother's veil. The more often veil is used, the more luck it gives to new wedding."

"Really?" Annabeth asked. "I don't think I knew that."

"I promise it is true," the seamstress said. "You will see."

"Case closed," Piper said. "You've got a veil, everybody's happy."

Annabeth looked at Sally, and Sally could tell.

* * *

Hazel's hands were shaking as she tried to smooth down the fabric of her dress.

"Hazel," Sally said softly. "Calm down. Your dress fits beautifully whether or not the second fitting was done and you look stunning."

Hazel nodded nervously and took a deep breath, which sounded sickly, almost like a rattle was lodged in Hazel's lungs. Hazel tried to clear her throat, as if that would make it disappear. The cough was actually the exact reason why the second fitting hadn't happened, why the wedding had been planned so quickly and then pushed forwards anyways.

At the last winter solace Hades had announced that things in the Underworld were finally back to normal after the Doors of Death incident, and that now the underworld's pantheon could focus more heavily on collecting the souls who had escaped during the war and who still roamed the world. Three days later, Hazel had spent Christmas in the ER, unable to breathe, as if she was choking on thin air. The doctors said it was as if she had fluid of some sort in her lungs, and Hazel had immediately fallen back to the way she'd died in the forties, breathing in dust and oil. She may be Hades' favourite daughter, but Frank and Hazel's race against time had begun, just in case. And the first order of business? Get married. So here they were two months later, with as small of a wedding as demigods could get away with in downtown Ottawa. Hazel's lacy heels were from an antique shop she and Nico went to regularly, and her dress had been pulled off the rack recently. Sally already had a beautiful picture of her, wrapped in a white blanket quilted by Grandmother Zhang, and smiling outside, against the snow.

"I'm nervous," Hazel said. "Our wedding wasn't meant to be a show but I _know_ how many gods are sitting there waiting and-"

"Don't mind them," Sally said. "They weren't even officially invited. I think you have enough on your mind already. I promise that you're going to have a beautiful day, even if you think that you forgot something."

Hazel's eyes widened. "Veil. I didn't think of the veil."

"I know you didn't, but I did," Sally said, taking a paper bag out of her purse.

The tension flooded out of Hazel's body just as the tears flooded her eyes. "Is it yours?"

Sally nodded and kissed Hazel's cheek. "I know it'll only be it's third time used, but you deserve all the luck in the world."

* * *

It was a good thing that Paul had told Sally who was calling when he passed her the phone, because Piper was ranting at about 100 miles an hour as soon as she

"I thought I could get away with it since I'm marrying her champion, but apparently Hera found out and she's pissed and so she told my mom and my mom has been popping up in my dreams and making my siblings nag me and honestly I might murder Lacy if I get another text but it's too late to order anything because apparently this is the kind of thing you need _order_ because of capitalism and I don't even know anymore but weddings are seriously starting to piss me off so I know it's last minute but I'm really sorry to bother you but-"

"Do you need to borrow my veil?" Sally asked, smiling. She could picture the frustrated Piper she was now talking to now, and put that image right up against the nonchalant and happy Piper who'd been sunk on her couch playing video games with Percy, talking about how even if Hera was forcing a shotgun wedding now that Piper was pregnant after tolerating years and years of them dallying around, she and Jason were trying to be completely untraditional to piss of Hera as much as possible until they got murdered because, in Piper's words: 'Romeo and Juliet wasn't even that nice of a story to be honest'.

"Yes please," Piper said.

"This must be exhausting for someone who was all for never getting married and faking it until you made it," Sally said.

Piper groaned. " _And_ the baby's kicking like crazy."

* * *

"You're pretty good about lending out that veil," Paul said as they looked through the apartment looking for the aforementioned veil. Sure, they had plenty of time until Miranda Gardner walked down the aisle; but demigods were dramatic and unpredictable, so Sally rather not push their luck. "Like, when my sister got married she wouldn't let anyone hug her when she was wearing her dress. She was _so_ protective."

"It's for luck," Sally said as if that alone explained this nearly unquestioned sharing that could even implicate shipping the veil to the other side of the country. Really it was because the mere thought of saying no bred visions of cement statues and painful memories of bruises and cuts and black eyes and burst lips and sleeping on the couch and trying to become invisible in your own home and her things being broken and her son being insulted and getting sworn at and belittled and embarrassed and... and...

"Everyone deserves a happy marriage," Sally said. "I mean, I'd wish this on anybody."

She kissed Paul.

* * *

Reyna was mixing concealers and bronzers like a pro to hide the tattoo on her arm. There were so many bars under the two crossed torches, Piper had never gotten around to counting them all. Besides, nowadays Reyna always covered it.

"Are you nearly done?" Piper asked.

Reyna nodded. "What about you, is everything ready out there?"

"Yup," Piper said, popping her 'p'. "Cristian can't _wait_ to see you. Lucky him, you look gorgeous."

"Thank you," Reyna said furrowing her eyebrows as she dabbed on more concealer. It was actually ridiculous, this rule that Reyna had to keep the stupid thing hidden. Unfortunately Reyna had only found out after the wedding gown –a sleeveless, regal, form-fitting dress- had been selected, hence the makeup.

She pulled her hoody down over her bridesmaid dress and sat on a corner of the table that wasn't covered in the thousand and one varieties of makeup needed. A tattoo like the ones legionnaires had were nearly impossible to cover, Piper had heard that much.

"Need help? I always do his for Jason when he has job interviews and whatnot," Piper said.

"I know how," Reyna said.

"Yes, but you're stressed right now."

Reyna handed her the concealer and Piper got working.

"I think that it's a load of shit that you need to cover it. Also New Rome's loss. But I think you're doing the right thing," Piper said. "If Rome won't let you marry a mortal and keep your status in Rome, then I think you made the right choice by packing up your things and leaving. Cristian is incredible for you and you for him."

"I don't know about all that 'New Rome's loss' bit," Reyna said. "But I don't regret resigning and giving up my titles. As long as Octavian's not alive to hear it."

"Fair enough," Piper admitted. "Still, it's not easy when people bully you out of who you are. I mean, you had to move, you had to get a new job, you had to give up communications with New Rome… Seriously, what an outdated load of crap. Jason told me you aren't even allowed to have a ceremony in Latin or use the- the… oh, what's it called? The traditional veil. The orange one that wards off monsters and evil spirits and stuff?"

"The _flammeum,"_ Reyna said. She tried to sound casual, but she answered too quickly.

"The _flammeum,"_ Piper repeated. "I know Jason was kind of nervous that I wasn't wearing it at our wedding. So Annabeth, Hazel and I tried to find a compromise and this is what we came up with."

She pulled something out of her hoody pocket and gave it to Reyna.

"It's Sally's veil," Piper said. "She let me use it last year and I never got around to bringing it back to her, but she said she'd love for you to wear it if you want. We figure that it has a different kind of luck to it, but it's still lucky. Besides, you can handle the monsters and evil spirits yourself."

* * *

Katie Gardner had been hit with a demigod's worst nightmare: monsters on the day before her wedding.

Most of her and Travis' apartment had been thrashed even after they'd made it out to safety and before they got backup and managed to get rid of the pack of hellhounds. Still, most of the damage had been repaired.

"Travis borrowed a suit from Percy," Annabeth explained quickly, "and Piper went up to Olympus herself and begged to Aphrodite. She got all pitiful and batty-eyed and everything, so Aphrodite just _poofed_ a new dress into existence for Katie. They're going to give tiny vials of monster dust as their wedding favours and use Ring Pops for their vows since the insurance on the wedding bands won't replace them quickly enough."

"Did Katie find another veil?" Reyna asked.

"No," Annabeth said. "Shit! Katie's the one who loves veils!"

"Shit, I think I still have Sally's," Reyna said dashing off into her apartment, in the spare room that was still full of unpacked boxes. "Call her and tell her not to panic!"

* * *

"We're trying not to create anything new for the wedding," Grover said. "Nature spirits usually have very small weddings. It's bad enough that we have to get married in the city…"

Juniper had recently needed to be transplanted and removed from camp because of a bug among the nymphs. Despite how homesick Juniper was and how much she missed camp and the other nymphs, the hatred of the city had spawned a desire to create something good, and the way they'd almost lost each other had the _carpe diem_ effect of creating a wedding.

"Ask Juniper if she wants my veil," Sally said. "I have it here somewhere. I think."

"Actually, Lou Ellen has it," Annabeth said. "Remember? Her brother magicked hers into a bird a few days before her wedding."

"No," Piper said. "Actually, Lacy has it. Lou Ellen gave it over because Lacy and Nyssa accidentally got the same veil, but they didn't want to be identical on their wedding day."

"I thought Lacy had given it back," Sally said.

"Yes, but Lou Ellen's wedding was _after,"_ Annabeth said.

"Not that long after," Piper said. "Because Drew had it around the same time, don't you remember? She wanted a lucky veil but she refused to wear her stepmother's, so she couldn't wear her mother-in-law's to avoid creating drama…

"Wherever it is, I'm sure Juniper would _love_ the offer, Sally," Grover said, his head spinning. Why was everyone getting married at once?

* * *

"I didn't think I'd look good in a veil," Clarisse shrugged when Sally asked. "I don't look good in delicate things. It's like dressing up a monster truck."

"Nonsense," Sally said clucking her tongue. "You'd look beautiful in anything Clarisse. Just because you're tall and strong doesn't change anything. I mean, look at yourself in the mirror. Can you really tell me that you don't look amazing?"

Clarisse grinned. "I do look good."

"Exactly," Sally said. "Now. It's a bit last minute, but I can run home and get you a veil if you want it, sweetheart. All you have to do is ask."

"I'm glad you decided to adopt all of us, Mrs. Jackson," Clarisse smiled.

* * *

It was when Clarisse gave her back the veil three days later that she collapsed.

* * *

"Hey Mom," Sophie said. "Did you know that the more a wedding veil is worn the luckier it becomes for the bride's wedding?"

"I've heard about that superstition," Annabeth said. They were sitting at the kitchen table, licking envelopes to try and get the invitations sent out by morning. Sophie's fiancée Lizzie was sitting with them, trying to make herself useful despite how little she actually cared about how the wedding happened compared to the fact that the wedding WAS happening.

"I don't really want to buy a veil anyways," Sophie said. "Do you know where I could get one?"

"Actually, yes," Annabeth said. She smiled, thinking of frantic phone calls to figure out who had the veil, of touching moments, of Katie crying of relief, of Hazel twirling and wrapping herself in the tulle, of Hera politely congratulating Piper on 'growing up and doing the right thing', of relatives pointing to several different wedding pictures and noticing how similar Annabeth, Piper, Hazel and a number of others looked…

"Wait a second, I think I know where it is," Annabeth said. She stepped out of the kitchen and came back holding a box entitled "WEDDING" in which spare invitations and photo albums and a seashell necklace were stashed.

"Liz, get out," Sophie said.

"Oh, I see how it is," Lizzie said.

Sophie laughed. "I'm sorry, you're just not supposed to see this, it's like the dress. Maybe. Anyways, I'm not risking it. I'll see you at home, okay?"

"Okay," Lizzie said. She got up and kissed Sophie before waving to Annabeth and excusing himself.

Annabeth smiled and took out a tulle wedding veil wrapped in kraft paper, unfolding it gently.

"I don't think I could count on just one hand how many people have borrowed this veil," Annabeth said going around the table. "Your grandmother lent it to everybody, saying she wanted everybody to have beautiful marriages."

"This was grandma's?"

"Umm hmm," Annabeth said. She took a few pins out of her hair and clumsily fastened the veil in Sophie's hair. "She'd have offered it to you herself if she was here, but she'd _love_ to know that you wore it too."

"She never met me," Sophie said.

"She wouldn't have needed to to love you," Annabeth said kissing Sophie's cheek.


	2. Timing

**Alright, so here is where the "a bunch of wedding slash engagement themed prompts" list starts. I hope you enjoy this chapter! It'll take a while for me to update the next chapter because I'll be volunteering at a camp. Enjoy!**

 **Dedication: to M, because I am dating a giant ball of Cheese. I hope you love this story half as much as I love you.**

* * *

 **2\. Timing: "this is probably a bad time, but marry me?"**

If there was one thing that Percy hadn't quite realised he absolutely hated, it was evil megalomaniacal mortal scientists who got a hold of magic and tried to smash the two together as if thousands of movies hadn't already determined that this was a bad idea.

From what Percy and Annabeth (mostly Annabeth) could figure out between duels, fights to the deaths with monsters and booby traps: they were currently being treated as lab rats by the aforementioned and unfortunately _not_ rhetorical Megalomaniacal Mortal Scientist. They had no memory of signing up for this _or_ of being kidnapped from their apartment, but Annabeth seemed sure that thought they thought they were in the Labyrinth again, this was a laboratory simulation setting.

"Trust me, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said. "I basically grew up in universities when my dad was teaching."

Whatever was going on, Percy was royally pissed about it. They'd been having a good run at home: their apartment had been monster-free for the last five days. _Five entire days._ The only thing close to a monster sighting had been some other half-blood getting chased down Broadway by a hellhound, but he'd been yelling that he had everything under control so they'd stayed in their lane and things had been _great._ Percy had thought that the time had finally fucking come. He'd bought everything he needed to make banana stuffed French toast which was the one thing he could cook that didn't come from a bag, a box or a can- also the first thing he made for Annabeth. She said it wasn't a special occasion without it to tease him, but Percy thought he could make her eat those words along with a balanced breakfast by… well, nevermind. They had priorities at the moment.

Like, Dr Megalomaniacal Scientist? Yeah: he'd just decided to unleash a pack of _dracanae_ gladiators on them from secret traps _in the floor_.

"Okay," Annabeth said. "We're going to have to hope that Plan Omicron is good enough for this one. Do you have any way to draw water out of the air or..?"

"No, sorry."

"No, that's okay. That's why we have Omicron B."

"On your count?" Percy asked.

Annabeth counted down a bit and then _boom._ Rehearsed movements, formations, strikes and faints erupted. Percy felt like a dancer who was just pulling out a familiar choreography when the music came on. That's how easy and fluid fighting with Annabeth was, and before they knew it _boom,_ band of _dracanae_ dead, Percy and Annabeth both very much alive.

Percy looked up at Annabeth, panting. She was also trying to catch her breath, her hands on her knees. Hair had flopped out of her ponytails to frame her face with whispy curls and she was covered in monster dust, sweat, dirt and blood. Percy was overwhelmed right that second by everything he'd been meaning to say via French toast and cute speeches. _This_ was what he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

"This is probably a bad time," Percy said, "but marry me?"

Annabeth looked at the ring that Percy had just pulled from his pocket half unamused and half shocked. It _was_ pretty.

"Well, I suppose there was never going to be a 'good' time," Annabeth said.

Percy grinned and they fumbled around for a second as he slid the ring on her finger.

"I can't believe you were carrying that around this entire time," Annabeth said.

"Aren't you proud that I didn't drop it?"

"I'm very proud, that would've been sad. It's pretty."

"Thanks. The real plan included stuffed French toast, so I guess you'll get that later? I'm kind of winging it, but I really wanted to marry you too."

"Perfect," Annabeth smiled. She kissed him over the _dracanae's_ body.

"Okay," Percy said. "I think we should run now."

"To be honest we should have been doing that ten minutes ago, but that's okay," Annabeth said, taking his hand and dragging him down the appropriate tunnel.


	3. Bouquet

**Never mind, I'm going to post another chapter right now because I don't want to pack (also my brother is watching Master Chef and I want to see how the elimination challenge finishes up). Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the following characters.**

* * *

 **3\. Bouquet:** **"we've been dating forever, and you just caught the bouquet at our friend's wedding"**

Jason normally tried to stay as far as physically possible from water as possible, but he hadn't even groaned and moaned _that_ much when Percy and Annabeth had confirmed that they were taking the cheesy route and getting married on Montauk beach. They'd promised that Poseidon would include Jason in his oath to keep the event monster-free for demigod guests and there was something pretty great about weddings. He wasn't quite used to non-roman wedding traditions, but Percy and Annabeth looked happy and he'd been told there would be booze, and he really couldn't find the energy in him to care more than that.

"Wow," Piper said, sneaking up on him from behind. "You even took your shoes off."

"I'm feeling particularly adventurous today," Jason said. "Maybe I'll even wade into the water for five seconds before running out screaming."

"Ooo la la," Piper smiled.

Piper got caught up with a gaggle of her sisters who were absolutely overjoyed with how this entire wedding had turned out. Jason snaked through the crowd trying to find Reyna who could sympathise with his uncertainty about weddings (this mostly due to Juno being such a troublemaker in their lives and her realm being convenient to bitch about, of course).

After an ample amount of pictures had been taken, a still teary-eyed Grover Underwood took the microphone by the open pavilion and made the announcement for guests to take their seats and that no, they hadn't really bothered with assigned seating, because half of their godly guests hated each other's guts anyways and how were you supposed to keep up with their brand of drama?

Leo grabbed the mic. "Also Annabeth's recently been informed that she absolutely _has_ to throw the bouquet and we firmly believe that being bitchy with Aphrodite on a wedding day is a major faux-step, so if everyone could just freak out and make wild grabs for it, that would be great."

Jason wasn't sure what was going on, but half the girls and a quarter of the men at the wedding immediately made a bee-line for a small huddle. Annabeth threw the bouquet of flowers, which made sense to Jason because Annabeth had hated the struggle of picking flowers more than Jason could properly retell. There was a flurry of movement to catch it. Piper had climbed up on Mitchell's shoulders and she caught it with a smile on her face before tucking a flower behind her brother's ear as he raced around the surf in a victory run. Piper laughed and distributed flowers to others all around her. Hazel chased Nico around, trying to weave a daisy into the man bun that she'd deemed "unacceptable" since its first apparition. They were so carefree and light, both children of Hades even splashed in the water on their wild race.

"Well, will you look at that," Reyna said grinning at Jason.

"What?" Jason asked.

"Don't you know what the bouquet tradition is?" Reyna asked. "Start looking for a ring, Grace- you _really_ need to stop beating around the bush now…"

"Exactly," Piper said creeping up on them and weaving an arm through Jason's. She tucked a flower into his breast pocket.

"How do you know I don't have one?" Jason said.

"Then start finding a way to give it to me, karma's knocking," Piper said before kissing his cheek and disappearing again into the happy, merry crowd.

"Shit Reyna, what _does_ the bouquet mean?" Jason asked.


	4. Single at Thirty

**Ta-dah, here's another chapter! I hope you enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the following characters.**

* * *

 **4\. Single at Thirty: "remember when we were in high school and we swore that if we were still single at 30 we'd marry each other, well hey guess whose birthday it is"**

"Reeeeeeeeyna," Nico said as soon as she picked up the phone.

"It's literally two-in-the-morning," Reyna said. "Why are you calling me?"

"I knew you'd be up. You and Hylla always call each other and count down ten seconds until the stroke of midnight on each other's birthdays and then talk for hours," Nico said. "See, I know things. Speaking of important calls, this is kind of important."

"Shoot," Reyna said settling back into the couch, cocooning herself in a blanket. The television screen was frozen on a wicked battle scene staged in outer space, but for the love of Nico, Reyna could wait.

"Well, it's come to my attention that you've just turned thirty, and since you're still single there's a certain mid-quest, feverish promise I need to keep," he said.

Reyna's blood froze.

"Open your front door," Nico said.

"Nico di Angelo-" Reyna said. Normally she wouldn't have fallen for this, but it _was_ 2:00 AM.

"Just do it. Open your front door."

Reyna did. Her doorstep was occupied by a small satin box on which a bright yellow balloon was tied. Reyna picked up the ring box shakily and opened it to find… a ring pop.

Cherry, her favourite. Probably deposited there by Dakota or Gwen or someone else in New Rome that Nico was close to. Heck, maybe Nico himself had shadow-traveled. She nearly laughed.

"You jerk," Reyna smiled despite herself. Thank the gods that Nico couldn't see her grin on the phone. He would think he was _hilarious._ "You have _children._ I don't want to be a home-wrecker."

"Actually, I have _a_ child and two dogs," Nico said. "Will's the one who thinks those are actual children. He's a strange one, hence why I'm willing to swap him for you."

Reyna laughed.

"Anyways, long story short, happy birthday," Nico said. "Thought I'd be creative since it was a big year."

"Yes, dear," Reyna said with a grin. She put the ring pop on and started sucking on it as she wandered back to her couch. "Now tell me, outdoor ceremony or inside?"


	5. Cancel My Reservation

**Cliché and all, but isn't that what fluff is about? Also Tagine Dining Gallery is a real restaurant, I Googled it. It's supposedly really good too.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the following characters.**

* * *

 **5\. Cancel My Reservation: "i planned out this super romantic proposal and you just ruined it by beating me to whole proposing thing"**

"Tagine Dining Gallery, how may I help you?" The voice on the other side said when the phone was picked up. He immediately recognised the Moroccan accent and his mouth practically watered for the delicious food he'd have been eating that night _if all had gone well._

"Hi, I'd like to cancel a reservation."

"Okay, under what name?" The hostess asked.

He gave his name before specifying: "It was for tonight- at 6:30, I think."

"Yes, I see it. Okay, would you like us to squeeze you in later?"

"No, that's alright, thank you," he said.

"Sir, were you the man who'd asked to speak to the chef about a proposal?" the hostess said as she looked across her reservation book. "Sorry, we just have a note here about a... proposal?"

"Oh yeah, don't worry about that. That ship sailed."

"Oh I'm very sorry to hear that sir!" The hostess said. "My condolences, that must be so hard! I know that my sister was devastated when it happened to her- then again it wasn't just the engagement that didn't work out, he _did_ leave her at the alter..."

"What? Oh no, no! It's not because we had a fight or anything. No, she just proposed to me first," Percy grinned. "Classic, really. Don't worry about it. This restaurant was our first date and all, so we'll eat there soon anyways. Anyways, thanks for the help."


	6. Fake Engagement

**So I went to a wedding last night and the girlfriend asked for a Lacy and Nyssa drabble, so basically it was a perfect time to post this. Also if you're wondering why Lacy is Ukranian out of all things, it's because the bride's mother was Ukrainian and Polish and there were homemade perogies at the wedding brunch this morning. Amen. Enjoy the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the following characters.**

* * *

 **4\. Fake Engagement: "we're getting fake engaged for [insert reason here]"**

Nyssa was not a fan of social interaction on a good day, but once that shit was digitalised and marked on the calendar there was no going back.

On an unrelated note: she was not a fan of the phone. However she'd spent hours on hold, listening to sappy chimes and slogans, only to get turned down by every single one of Lacy's favourite restaurants. Miraculously the cute little Italian place downtown by the club with the awesome martinis called her back saying they'd just gotten a cancellation, which basically meant that responsibility for Friday's date night had just been completely lifted off her shoulders. Food, alcohol, home: these things would lead in to one another naturally. Perfect.

So far so good. Lacy was looking spectacular in a pale pink dress, her hair pinned up and held back by a long scarf. Nyssa herself had managed to scrub off a grease stain that had been displayed on her elbow for the last three days before calling it a day. Even more "perfect". This was by far the best date night she'd planned at the last minute.

Except for one thing. And it wasn't even Nyssa's fault or the waiter's fault, so they had to sit still and quiet and endure it all because _he_ probably didn't want to have the Problem seated in his section anyways.

Basically they were sitting next to the Poster Child Republican Couple. Their cute little candlelit table was close enough in the cozy little restaurant for them to hear every snide and disgusting remark the couple exchanged about a gay couple sitting on the _complete other side of the fucking room._

When the first 'I wish they'd keep it in the bedroom' was heard, Lacy and Nyssa had looked at each other briefly to figure out how they were going to get around this. The consensus was to do nothing, since that couple was too busy talking about The Homosexual Agenda (homosexuals travel in packs and therefore always have one fixed activity, usually separated in two-hour slots) to pay attention to them. For some reason, lesbians seemed to be able to slide under the radar more easily anyways. Usually Lacy was all about the glitter-glue posters and teaching troglodytes about the clitoris, but today they were on a date. They were being calm. They did not want to have to change tables or explain themselves to confused waiters. Besides, old people were hard to change. Luckily they were a dying breed.

But when the wife narrated a quick kiss with "I wonder what their parents must think", Nyssa saw Lacy stiffen up and cringe a little bit. The exact same cringe Nyssa had seen when Lacy's father had completely lost his cool upon meeting Nyssa for the first time. He'd been wheezing and shouting and swearing in Ukrainian, so Nyssa to this day had no idea what had happened- but she knew that they hadn't gone back to his place since, and Lacy missed her father every single day and so right now she was in a really bad place. So Nyssa had to fix it.

"Want to piss off an old white dude?" Nyssa asked taking a sip of her wine.

"When _don't_ I want to piss off an old white dude?" Lacy asked. It was true. The girl had dyed half her head blue for a reason.

Nyssa nodded and wiped her mouth with her napkin. "Give me your ring."

Lacy slid the ring of her middle finger, frowning but trusting Nyssa who stuffed it in her pocket and kept talking as if nothing had happened. The other couple's food just landed on their table when Nyssa decided to go for it.

"I need to talk to you about something," Nyssa said putting her hands on the table.

"Go for it," Lacy said taking her hands.

Nyssa winked and Lacy winked back. They were on the same page: Nyssa would wing something super random, and Lacy would go with it as if they had a plan.

Nyssa spoke more loudly than she usually would.

"When I met you I thought you were a gift to this world," Nyssa said. "We all need a ray of sunshine in this world, and it's amazing how bright and cheerful and optimist you can be. It just so happens that you're good-looking too."

Lacy blushed.

"But the more I think about it, the more I think it's like you were designed and built to be a gift to _me_ ," Nyssa said, "because you are everything I need in every single way. You bring out my strengths, soften my weaknesses, balance me out. You're the best part about me, and I think it's time the entire world knew. Lacy Ho…"

Nyssa got up from her chair and knelt on the ground, pulling Lacy's ring (which, like, _Mitchell_ had actually bought eons ago) out of her pocket. Lacy, an incredible actress, gasped loudly.

"Oh my God!"

"Lacy Kondratyuk ill you marry me?" Nyssa asked.

Lacy's hands were plastered over her mouth.

"Yes, yes, yes!" She finally said. Nyssa slipped the ring on her finger and the restaurant's patrons all around them clapped and cheered. Nyssa got up, pulled Lacy to her feet and made sure to kiss her about as passionately as she could without making it awkward in a public place _just_ for their neighbours' sakes. Lacy even squeezed a few fake tears out and whispered _'this is my favourite thing we've ever done'_ in Nyssa's ear before they sat back down.

In a splendid turn of events they also got their wine free from the restaurant after their touching fake-performance, and the couple next to them quickly got up and left, which meant that they could actually enjoy the free booze. (That was a lie. They were not known to ever be unhappy with booze- whether it was free or legally purchased).

After dinner they walked to the bar anyways, arms linked. Lacy slipped her ring back on her index finger.

"That was quite the touching performance," Lacy said. Nyssa blushed.

"Anything to piss off the assholes," Nyssa said.

"Mmm-hmm," Lacy said skeptically.

"Hey, what about you?" Nyssa said. "You weren't so bad yourself. I really thought you might say yes, there."

"Well maybe I would have," Lacy winked.

Nyssa stopped in the middle of the side walk.

"Really?" Nyssa asked.

Lacy arched an eyebrow. "Okay, I see. Your EQ is a bit rusty today. Let's do this the mathy way then. We've been together since we were 16, so that'll be seven years. We've lived together for four of those. Gay marriage has been federally legal for five years. You've been invited to collaborate on my wedding pinboard for a year. How's that for math, Nys?"

"Fucking relieving one," Nyssa said opening her purse and fumbling for something in the bottom, bottom, bottom which she'd made in a frenzied night when Lacy had been in the hospital. Nyssa had been booted out since she wasn't directly related to Lacy, and she'd spent the night worried out of her mind and forging everything and anything (she'd gone through their good cutlery) to clear her mind. Afterwards, Nyssa had immediately dismissed the idea and they'd been so busy with physical therapy and back operations since the accident that Nyssa hadn't really thought that it was the right time for anything.

She uncovered the box underneath a smushed square of ambrosia and opened it to show Lacy the glittering silver bands.

Lacy actually cried for real this time.


	7. Secret Mission

**As advertised in some other fics, I'm on my way to a two week road trip to the maritimes tomorrow (well, technically, later today). Posting should happen, but it may be sparse. Enjoy this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody.**

* * *

 **7\. Secret Mission: "we're assigned to this mission in which we have to pretend to be a married couple, but i'm actually really in love with you"**

"Okay, I have news," Jason said walking out of the tourist shop where they had just so happened to stumble on an ex-priest of Venus. Reyna was already more or less grumpy about having to go to the middle of nowhere on a dumb side-quest for the love goddess when they had more pressing things -such as the fate of Rome- on their plates, but Jason had pointed out that they couldn't afford to insult any goddesses at the moment. Plus right now, walking out of the tourist shop with his head up high and his chin tilted up so the sun caught on his eyes... yes, anyways, he looked confident and sure. He probably even had a plan already.

"According to him," Jason said jabbing his finger towards the shop, "the temple we need to bust into is _actually_ a temple to Juno."

"Even better than what I'd originally planned," Reyna said, her voice laced with sarcasm. Jason grinned.

"Yeah, my stepmother will be _super_ happy with me. But it needs to be done. Cornelius –the ex-priest-"

"I'm glad you got on a first-name basis with a crazy person who sells canned worms and fishing gear and lucky rocks in the middle of nowhere," Reyna said.

Jason made a face. "First off, they are crystals. Secondly, will you let me finish? Cornelius knows why nobody else managed to sneak in and steal back Venus' mirror. It's because the temple to Juno can only be visited by a married couple."

" _Jesus,_ this really couldn't get ANY more complicated," Reyna said.

"Not really," Jason said. "There are two of us. We speak Latin, we're used to lying our asses off in the senate. We could possibly trick the temple's _lares._ "

Reyna blushed to the root of her hair.

"Cornelius even found these in his stock room for us," Jason said taking two rings out of his pocket. "They're just mood rings, but the _lares_ aren't known for seeing very well, after all... give me your hand."

"What?" Reyna asked, stumbling over her own tongue and her own thoughts.

Jason looked at her, an eyebrow arched, took her hand and slipped the ring on.

"Perfect fit," Jason noticed. "Awesome."

That's it. This was officially the quest that would kill Reyna.


	8. Repost of Chapter 7

**As advertised in some other fics, I'm on my way to a two week road trip to the maritimes tomorrow (well, technically, later today). Posting should happen, but it may be sparse. Enjoy this chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody.**

* * *

 **7\. Secret Mission: "we're assigned to this mission in which we have to pretend to be a married couple, but i'm actually really in love with you"**

"Okay, I have news," Jason said walking out of the tourist shop where they had just so happened to stumble on an ex-priest of Venus. Reyna was already more or less grumpy about having to go to the middle of nowhere on a dumb side-quest for the love goddess when they had more pressing things -such as the fate of Rome- on their plates, but Jason had pointed out that they couldn't afford to insult any goddesses at the moment. Plus right now, walking out of the tourist shop with his head up high and his chin tilted up so the sun caught on his eyes... yes, anyways, he looked confident and sure. He probably even had a plan already.

"According to him," Jason said jabbing his finger towards the shop, "the temple we need to bust into is _actually_ a temple to Juno."

"Even better than what I'd originally planned," Reyna said, her voice laced with sarcasm. Jason grinned.

"Yeah, my stepmother will be _super_ happy with me. But it needs to be done. Cornelius –the ex-priest-"

"I'm glad you got on a first-name basis with a crazy person who sells canned worms and fishing gear and lucky rocks in the middle of nowhere," Reyna said.

Jason made a face. "First off, they are crystals. Secondly, will you let me finish? Cornelius knows why nobody else managed to sneak in and steal back Venus' mirror. It's because the temple to Juno can only be visited by a married couple."

" _Jesus,_ this really couldn't get ANY more complicated," Reyna said.

"Not really," Jason said. "There are two of us. We speak Latin, we're used to lying our asses off in the senate. We could possibly trick the temple's _lares._ "

Reyna blushed to the root of her hair.

"Cornelius even found these in his stock room for us," Jason said taking two rings out of his pocket. "They're just mood rings, but the _lares_ aren't known for seeing very well, after all... give me your hand."

"What?" Reyna asked, stumbling over her own tongue and her own thoughts.

Jason looked at her, an eyebrow arched, took her hand and slipped the ring on.

"Perfect fit," Jason noticed. "Awesome."

That's it. This was officially the quest that would kill Reyna.


	9. Vegas

**Sorry! Turns out that when you post at 2:00 AM you mix your stuff up and I accidentally posted the same chapter twice. This is as soon as I could whip out my laptop and fix it. Enjoy the REAL chapter. (I also threw in Chapter 9 out of guilt- which is great for you!) If anyone's wondering why I left the repost of chapter 7 there it was so people could comment on this one regardless of whether or not they'd already left a review like 'eeeerm stupid you got the chapter wrong' (though everyone was much nicer, thank you so much).**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody.**

* * *

 **8: Vegas: "we accidentally got married in vegas oops"**

Percy woke up with hair all over his face and the smell of lemon flooding his nose. Also the stench of beer, but not _just_ beer of course. Vodka, hard liquor; you name it, he had apparently used it to poison his body. _Nice._

Then the associated headache popped up. Percy cringed as he sat up. _Not nice._

"Annabeth," he muttered. "Where are we?"

"Dunno," Annabeth muttered. "What hotel did Hera book for us after the quest?"

"Dunno," Percy said. "But I'm pretty sure she _probably_ got us two rooms and I'm not supposed to be in yours."

Annabeth laughed into her pillow and mumbled something like "Bite me and my unwed ass, cow goddess", but didn't make any more sign of wanting to move or otherwise commute with the outside world. Percy swung his legs off the bed and looked around the room to find Annabeth's bag. She always had Advil on her. Preparation, if not foresight, was the great thing about Annabeth (among others).

As he stumbled around the room his legs faltered and he nearly face planted on a TV stand. He stood up and his hand had landed on a paper. A very, very important paper.

"Uh- Annabeth," Percy said. "I… You know what, I don't think Hera _would_ have any opposition to us sharing a room…"

"She opposes to us _existing,"_ Annabeth said.

"No, Annabeth, you- you don't understand. We… shit Annabeth, I think we got married."

Annabeth sat up, arching her eyebrows.

"What?" She asked. She clutched her head. " _Owe,_ too fast. Okay, back to my original question- what?"

"Umm, we have a marriage certificate right here," Percy said. "With our names. And our signatures. It even has a seal on it…"

"Oh fuck," Annabeth said getting out of bed. She was wearing his quest-ripped t-shirt, wearing it better as per usual. She looked beautiful as she came up to him rubbing sleep out of her eyes to properly investigate the paper.

"Crap," Annabeth said.

"The good news is, I think it was a classy chapel." Percy said.

"Yeah, looks like it," Annabeth said. "Well… want to order room service for breakfast to celebrate?"

"How are you not freaking out?" Percy asked.

"I want waffles more than I want stress and existential anxiety," Annabeth said. "Besides. What probably happened is that we got pissed about being sent for a quest while camp is overflowing with willing demigods, we got our shit done because we're not amateurs, decided to fuck with Hera by sloppily getting married in Vegas, got super drunk, and hailed a cab to the hotel we remembered she'd booked for us."

"That sounds legitimate," Percy said. "And accurate. I fully support anything that pisses off Hera and leads to waffles."

Annabeth smiled, before her eyes got darker for a second. Dark with worry, Percy recognised that face.

"I know we were going to wait and do it nicely once we got out of college but… are we okay? This isn't a problem, is it?"

"I don't think the problem is that we accidentally got married, because that was going to happen anyways. It may as well be spontaneous and exciting and fun and Olympian tabloid-worthy. The problem is that my Mom wasn't there and she's going to kill me."


	10. Accidents Happen

**Here's the formal apology slash penance for posting the same chapter twice like a rookie. I'm in the maritimes (Nova Scotia is the prettiest place on earth fyi) so I've been giving Sally and Percy and Poseidon and Amphitrite a lot of thought, as a matter of fact- so this is great timing!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody.**

* * *

 **9\. Accidents Happen: "accidentally crashed this wedding, but hey you're pretty cute"**

They weren't _going_ to cause trouble.

(In retrospect, this shouldn't have meant anything to Sally. When they'd started talking they'd never meant to cause trouble, and three months later she was knocked up with The World's Most Illegal Baby- _but_ at the time she didn't know that was going to happen. Ignorance was bliss et cetera, et cetera).

No, tonight they weren't going to be trouble. They weren't going to laugh noisily at the campfire early in the morning and piss off the retired neighbours living next to the rental collage, or Sally's roommates. They weren't going to attract random sea monsters to the shore (maybe). They weren't going to splash around and recruit other Chicken players and try to tip each other off of paddleboards and disrupt tanning tourists and fishermen and whoever else wanted the beach to be nice and quiet. No. The plan was that they were going to be nice and quiet and they were just going to walk down the beach and look at the stars and maybe Poseidon would push her into the water (apparently this is what thousands of years of experience could culminate into as far as Sea God humour went). But it would be okay because he'd let Sally pull him in and then he'd end up answering questions about seaweed life cycles or mermaid migration or Atlantis or something.

 _But_ then they had to sidestep an ultra rocky part of the beach and got closer to a big, wooden pavilion that was strung up with lanterns and tiki torches.

"Hey, a party," Poseidon said. "Want to check it out? Maybe there's booze."

Sally had been all for the quiet evening thing, but just because she'd had to dropout didn't mean that she wasn't a broke college kid. Free alcohol was kind of a best seller for her. She was morally obligated to accept it, if not hunt it down like a bloodhound.

Sally swore under her breath. "I'm not wearing shoes. I left them at the cottage."

"I told you to wear shoes."

"Your Hawaiian shirt is more obnoxious than usual, don't sermon me about clothes, Sea Monkey," Sally said.

"Touché," he said. He took her hand again and Sally felt like a breeze hit her. She was wearing worn flip-flops now and a pretty summer dress that had spent the summer buried at the bottom of her suit case. Poseidon himself was now wearing jeans ( _gasp)_ and a sensible t-shirt ( _louder gasp)._

"Thanks," Sally said. "You're useful. I need a miniature of you on a keychain."

" _That_ I refuse to poof into existence," Poseidon said.

They reached the pavilion and stepped inside, tugging at each other to weave through the crowd. Colourful lights were bouncing around the pavilion and the music was nice and loud.

Then they ran into a fantastic looking bride in a nice white dress and realised that _oh shit this isn't just a party, this is a wedding._

The bride didn't seem to mind. She beamed at them while Sally was trying to figure out an identity as a cousin twice-removed of the groom, but she cut Sally off.

"Were you guys invited?"

"No," Sally admitted, forgetting her lie in a panic. Poseidon shot her a look. If they weren't surrounded, she'd tell him to give it up because she was 99% sure that he had a 24-7 access to liquor if he wanted it. "We thought it was just a random college party."

"That's too funny," the bride laughed. "You guys are cute, stick around if you'd like."

"Thanks," Sally beamed. "You look beautiful."

"Aww, thanks honey," the bride smiled before she disappeared in the crowd.

"See?" Sally asked. "This is great. Good thing you listened to me."

"As if I had a choice," Poseidon muttered.

"Don't sass me, I'm still sober," Sally said.

She didn't drink in the city; it made her think too much of her uncle and of nights spent locking the doors of her room. However at Montauk? Anything could happen at Montauk, especially when she was with someone as safe as Poseidon. They'd been invited to a wedding while it was in progress, for crying out loud.

 _Anyways,_ they pretended they'd been there all along and were introduced to cousins they weren't related to. They danced, they had cake (Sally smeared her icing on his face), they drank, they pretended to be a pair of long-lost nieces when a slightly amnesic older woman came and called them Tory and Dave... It was great, really.

Then the matron of honour took the mic and said that they'd run out of vodka, so while the bartenders scrambled to stock up they were going to play games. A bunch of them Sally had heard of before, but when a bridesmaid came and asked Sally for her left shoe she wasn't sure what was going on. She obeyed, though. It didn't come up until much later- and Sally had forgotten by then. The games were cute, the array of old uncles and aunts were drunk and hilarious, and there was the added cuteness factor that whenever someone won, they had to kiss their date on the tiny stage where the DJ was set up.

"Okay, so the next game is called Shopping Spree," the matron of honour said. "Basically every bridesmaids from order of youngest to oldest gets to pick her favourite pairs of shoes from those we collected from the audience. Out of all those, the bride gets to pick the one she'd most like to own right now instead of those killer heels we all saw."

The fun of the game was mostly tipsy bridesmaids calling out to guests like _where did you get these?_ And _if I take them now will you notice?_ Sally was chatting up a storm with the groom's grandmother when the game ended and Poseidon poked her shoulder. She'd won. Oh shit.

"Can the owner of this shoe come to the stage with their significant other?" the matron of honour asked.

Sally looked at Poseidon with big, bugged out eyes.

See, they really _had_ never meant to cause trouble. They'd drawn a firm line: holding hands was nice. Lying down on the beach next to each other in the sun was nice. But there was no kissing involved. Because they weren't a couple, right? They didn't ( _pff_ ) actually _(pff)_ LIKE each other _(pffffffffff)._ Okay, there had been significant -very, very significant- missteps as they tried to hide it from each other. Sally's roommates were ruthless in their teasing about how they'd always look at each other when someone said something funny, how Sally stole his clothes at camp fires, how he'd hang out a _lot_ considering he was a hot foreign fisherman with other options (Sally had had to make up _something,_ no?). Anyways, one night Poseidon and Sally had been lying under the stars and Sally had unwittingly asked him the origin story of an ultra-romantic constellation. Sally's head had been resting on his chest and she could feel his heartbeat, and he could probably feel hers considering its crazy drumming... Sally had sat up and looked at him and declared she would never, ever kiss him. He'd agreed that no, why would they do that? That was the line, and now it was being shattered at a wedding they weren't supposed to be attending.

 _This is why drinking is a sin,_ Sally thought miserably. The bride recognised her and started laughing and edged her onto the stage. She even picked out Poseidon from the crowd personally and got a few of the lesser-drunk cousins to round them up onstage.

"I hate weddings," Poseidon said quietly. "They're never good. First the Trojan War, and it's only been downhill since."

Sally smiled at his joke and she knew that's why he'd said it, because he knew she'd calm down. She really could have kissed him then.

"It's a cute game," Sally said.

"Yeah," Poseidon said. "Just a game."

"For sure," Sally said. Still, somehow she _knew_ she had to shift and stand on her tip-toes to kiss him and somehow he knew exactly where to put his hands so they'd land on her waist and keep her safe and steady.

Apparently it was a _long_ kiss because the crowd got excited and the matron of honour laughed and poked Sally's shoulder. She was probably red to the roots of her hair but she was also… thrilled?

"Okay," Poseidon said as they walked back to the dance floor. "Maybe weddings aren't so bad."

They stayed until the bar closed and the crowd thinned out at 2:00 AM and he walked her home, like he would have if this had been a normal night. Sally was holding her shoes in between two fingers, the other clasping Poseidon's hand. What the hell at this point, right? Right. (Hopefully). (Sally had no idea what to do). (She was panicking but pretending not to).

He walked her to the front door even though it may wake up her roommates- who were usually big enough creeps to stay up until Sally got home, but that usually wasn't until ass-o'clock in the morning, so technically they were alone.

"Crashing that wedding was actually a good idea," Poseidon said. "It was fun."

"The idea wasn't to _crash_ the wedding," Sally blushed.

"Yes, but that's what happened," Poseidon said. "That's the important part."

"Metaphors and shit," Sally muttered under her breath. She looked at Poseidon and smiled. He smiled back and scratched the back of his head.

"You're a… a really good kisser, Jackson," he said.

"Thanks," Sally said. "I'd return the compliment but I was a bit too stunned to really register anything. Wait-"

She kissed him again, easing herself on her toes as if she'd done it a thousand times and wrapping her arms around his neck as if that's where they were meant to go. They'd done it once. What was the harm now? Nothing, really. This was really nice. So nice...

"Okay," Sally said when she pulled away. "Yeah, you too."

Poseidon grinned back at her and bit his lip. "That ship sailed then, I guess."

"I think it did," Sally said. "I mean, we could maybe just never do that again but-"

Poseidon kissed her again and she was suddenly conscious of how close to the door she was, about how sandwiched she was between it and him.

"Or not," Poseidon said. Sally didn't unwrap her arms from him.

"I like not," Sally said. She kissed him again. It felt feverish, really. As if a floodgate had just lifted over the last two weeks. She leaned in again.

"Yeah, _not_ it is," Poseidon said breathlessly.


	11. Wedding Crashers

**Hi! Sally and Poseidon were definitely fun and goofy to write, and since you guys like them so much maybe I'll try weaseling some more in. BUT I don't know when the next slot with time to open my laptop AND wifi will be- so until then enjoy this chapter. Thank you for reading ten of these little blurbs, it's very appreciated.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody.**

 **Dedication: Thanks M for being super duper game for 'hey guess what would be cute for X and Y's honeymoon' type texts at ass-o'clock in the morning.**

* * *

 **10\. Wedding Crashers: "i was deliberately not invited to this wedding so im crashing it anyways, even if that means the angry hot maid of honor is going to murder me"**

Travis was doing an _excellent_ job of cowering under the table. He wished that Percy and Annabeth would have invested in longer tablecloths to make said cowering _easier,_ but he was crashing their wedding so he couldn't be too picky, now could he?

He was hugging a bottle of vodka he'd managed to swipe from the bartender while Connor was making a distraction, and was trying to figure out how to get up when the tablecloth was pulled up.

Katie Gardner in a soft grey dress peered down at him. Her hair had been done up all nicely by children of Aphrodite and she wore a sand dollar on a string around her neck.

"Fancy seeing you here, Stoll," she said. "Especially considering I don't recall seeing you on the guest list."

"Hey, Katie," Travis said. "Wow, look at you… here…"

"Yeah," Katie said happily. "I'm a bridesmaid. You, on the other hand, have been banned from all weddings by Hera since you tipped the punchbowl on a flower girl at Jason and Piper's reception while attempting to spike it. On a totally unrelated note, you do know that the entire Greco-Roman pantheon invited themselves to this wedding, right?"

"Yeah, which is why it's really important for you not to say anything," Travis said. "I mean, come on. Remember all the good times we had back at camp when we were kids? Those were the good old days."

"Actually not really," Katie said. "You always vandalised my cabin and picked on my little kids and-"

"I did not pick on no little kids!" Travis cried.

"Yeah you did," Katie said. "And even if you didn't think you were, when you're seven years old, living in a big, scary camp with weapons and children of Ares everywhere and someone plays a joke to make fun of you, how do you think they feel?"

Travis chewed on his lip.

"And even if you didn't do that, you _did_ steal my cabin's shower slots most of the time, hid our dining table on _multiple_ occasions, flipped our canoes every time we were on the lake –which was _not cool_ for the little kids-, pour salt over our flowerbeds, TPed my cabin -such a waste of paper-, inversed all the name plates on our bunks, messed up our recycling system, painted flowers all over our cabin and refused to wash them off because –and I quote- "you couldn't see the difference", hosted a hot-dog eating contest right in front of my mostly-vegan cabin…"

"Shit that's a lot," Travis muttered.

Katie nodded vigorously.

"Uh huh. You picked on my cabin because we cared so much. And that's cruel since caring is really the best thing about most of us."

"I know it is about you," Travis said.

Katie blushed furiously but she got herself back together rather quickly. "Don't try charming yourself out of this."

"Oh, I won't," Travis said. "I mean, when you talk about it… we sound awful. And I don't know if it's because I'm lonely and way too sober right now, but I really want to make it up to you."

"Maybe it's because you're actually a good person," Katie suggested. Then she shook her head. "Still. I think what's done is done."

"Can I at least give you a dance? One dance, and then you can drag me to Hera or Aphrodite or whatnot for judgement day." Travis asked. "The DJ just put on _And I Love Her_. I remember back at camp, you'd always ask the Apollo kids to put on Beatles music during parties."

"You remember that?" Katie asked.

"Yeah," Travis said.

"You're using me to get out of this little mess," Katie said. Travis put down the bottle of vodka and kicked it under the table.

"What if I swore I wasn't?"

Katie looked at him for a second and bit her lip.

"Fine," Katie said. "One dance. If you impress me, you may get more. And after that if I'm feeling not-too-sober and not-too-lonely myself, I may forget to mention this to the happy couple."

She held out her hand and Travis took it. She pulled him up, smiled, and ran to the dance floor leaving Travis to chase her.

* * *

Connor looked in on the wooden pavilion, all dressed up in strings of light for the wedding, at the people dancing, the dresses swishing around, the piles of shoes getting taller as the night of dancing went on… More specifically, he was watching Travis dancing with the bridesmaid, the bottle of vodka that Connor had faked an epileptic seizure for nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, Travis. If only you didn't think with your dick," he sighed.


	12. Strippers

**Hola! This chapter's light and goofy for you guys, so enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody.  
**

* * *

 **1\. 11.** **Strippers:** **"you're the hot stripper at my friend's bachelor(ette) party"**

Nico was 200% sure that siblings weren't supposed to get involved in each other's bachelor parties. And if they were, then that was _nasty_ and Nico didn't want to be at Hazel's. Knowing your sister was getting married and starting a family and going to start obsessing over throw cushions was one thing, but hearing about her sex life was another. And that thing was something Nico didn't want to get near with a ten foot pole. He liked Frank Zhang and wanted to keep it that way- which he had made sure was abundantly clear to the masterminds behind this party, alias Reyna and Piper and Annabeth. He'd been asked one simple favour: bring the pizza. That he'd agreed to, he could totally handle pizza.

But then Rachel Elizabeth Dare had grabbed Nico and pulled him into the party because (clearly) despite their friendship, she apparently hated him.

"You need to have fun too, ya know," she said.

So somehow he got strung into this bachelorette party. He could easily ignore the dirty jokes that made Hazel both laugh until she cried and blush until it (most likely) hurt. Board games were fine (especially the ones where shot glasses had been placed on the board). The food was the best part, of course. The door rang, and Annabeth –heavily impregnated Annabeth- got up to do it but Piper forced her to sit back down.

"Can someone get that?" Reyna asked.

Nico got up and went to the door himself, opening it a crack. The guy standing in the doorway was wearing a nice suit and his blond hair was so incredibly thick, it was ridiculous.

"Hi," Nico said. At first he was relieved, if there was another guy here it meant nobody could make fun of him for crashing a hen party. But then he realised he had no idea who the hell this man was.

"Hey," he said. "Umm- I may have gotten the wrong apartment, is this 43?"

"Yeah, how may I help you?" Nico asked.

"Oh," the guy blushed. "My name's Will. I'm the -ah- stripper."

Nico blushed just as profoundly. "Oh. One second…"

He closed the door slightly and yelled out: "RACHEL!"

Rachel took her goddamn time dragging her sorry ass to the door so Nico stood there awkwardly with Will.

This was Rachel's fault. Rachel had gotten some dumbass vision about the future and she'd made Annabeth and Piper hire a stripper for his sweet little sister's bachelorette party. Actually, no, this may be Piper's idea- the whole thing reeked of Piper. Making Nico entertain some random stripper...

"Nice hair," Nico said stupidly.

Nico did not like strange people and this was not what he liked to call an "ideal situation" either and he was more or less losing his shit but hopefully not too much because this boy was _pretty_ and Nico hated to make pretty people think they won around him...

"Thanks," Will said. "I like yours. It looks so… fluffy."

"Yours is curly," Nico said. "That's nice."

"Lots of people think that," Will said. "Want to touch it?"

"Is this going to add to your paycheck?" Nico asked.

"I'd personally consider it like you would be doing me a favour," Will admitted.


	13. Clichés

**Here's another AU for you, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody.  
**

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 **12\. Clichés: "hey i'm the best man, you're a bridesmaid, let's do this thing?"**

"So you're Jason," Piper said once the rehearsal was done.

"Yeah," he said. "And you've got to be Piper."

"Pleasure is mine," Piper said holding out her hand for Jason to shake. She yawned into her arm. "Sorry. I don't mean to be rude; my flight got in late."

"Yeah. You're the friend who teaches English as a second language in Laos, right? Annabeth's friend from childhood and all that..."

"Yup," Piper said. "And you're the elusive Californian from Percy's boarding school in freshman year… Annabeth talked about you nonstop while Percy was gone, she said you were the only reason he hadn't gotten lost in his dorm or gotten killed by the teachers."

Jason grinned. "All I know about you is that you got Annabeth to loosen up during high school –go out, dress nice, sleep every now and then."

"Sleep was our wildest adventure," Piper nodded.

Jason laughed. "You must've been quite the party animal in college."

"The craziest. I mixed apple juice and 7Up this one time, I regretted it the next morning... Nothing compared to how I am now though."

"I bet," Jason said. "Do you… do you think that I could take you out sometime to see?"

Piper glared.

"Sorry, that was a sloppy transition. It's just- you're _really_ pretty, and you made me laugh so much with your colour commentating during the rehearsal, and I noticed that you didn't eat any meat during the rehearsal dinner and there's this awesome vegetarian place downtown, and you're the maid of honour and I'm the best man so maybe I got carried away with the clichés…"

"Sorry, did I give you my death stare? That was an accident, I promise! I'm very defensive around men. I'm glad you think I'm pretty though, that's nice to know. But sure. I know a bar nearby that we can check out after they decide to wrap up here. It might help with the jet lag."

"Alcohol can't be the solution," Jason said.

"No, but it's worth a shot," Piper said. "Do you want yourself a date or not, Best Man?"

"You made a booze pun," Jason said. "I don't think I can say no now."


	14. I'm in Love With You

**Hola! I was so angry when Kinzie died in The Blood of Olympus, I thought of this drabble nearly ASAP. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody.  
**

* * *

 **13\. I'm in Love with You:** **"i know im supposed to be your best man/maid of honor, but maybe i should mention now that i'm in love with you"**

"Milady," Kinzie said, knocking on Hylla's door and pushing through it at the same time. "T-5 hours."

"Excellent," Hylla said getting up from her desk in a hurry. "Thank you Kinzie."

Kinzie came in, holding the dress bag over her shoulder. She'd been inside Hylla's chambers on multiple occasions but there was something about it now that made it awkward. Perhaps it was simply knowing that things would change and that somebody else would walk in as openly as she did in… Well, in five hours.

"Here is the traditional gown," Kinzie said unzipping the bag. The dress was old; and by "old", Kinzie meant Bronze Age old. It was the original dress worn by Othrera during her wedding to Ares. The train was as dramatic as the skirt was flowy, and the straps and plunging neckline left little to the imagination. Not that… Not that Kinzie ever used her imagination. Not like that, no.

"Great queens have gotten married in this," Hylla said numbly, her fingers stroking the flowing white fabric.

"One day they'll add your name to that legacy," Kinzie added.

"Thank you," Hylla smiled softly. "Can you help me put it on?"

Kinzie wasn't sure if she could handle that: Hylla looked stunning even without the dress on. Her hair was pinned up in twists and curls and her eyes, lined with kohl, looked even more fierce than usual. She'd been barefoot and wrapped in her bathrobe, but Kinzie knew that she'd been working just before she'd barged in. There was yellow highlighter on her fingertips.

"Of course, Milady," Kinzie said.

"Kinzie," Hylla said. "I'm asking you as a friend. Not as your queen."

Kinzie blushed.

Still, she did as Hylla wanted her to, needed her to. She washed the highlighter stains off of her hands. She touched up her eyes. She wrapped her arms around Hylla's waist to buckle up the Amazon belt around her and she arranged the Amazon wedding diadem on top of Hylla's head.

"You look…"

Kinzie's chest was so tight.

Hylla looked amazing. Truly spectacular. Astounding, terrific, gorgeous. She'd always felt _right_ as a queen to Kinzie, but Hylla truly looked regal in that moment, everything from the stunning train to the wonders that the dress did for her bust. She looked like she'd stepped off of Olympus: fearless and timeless, powerful and pristine.

"Beautiful," Kinzie said. "Like any bride. But unhappy, unlike them."

"Yes," Hylla said. "Well, I suppose I'll have to smile for the ceremony. Here, let me practise."

Kinzie still made a sour expression.

"It's because you know me too well," Hylla said defensively.

"Yes, your groom will be fooled," Kinzie said. She hadn't meant it as a reproach, but it was a sharp comment.

"The doors of death are unstable," Hylla said. "The kingdom needs to be stronger than ever. I won't let a single stone go unturned to make it so. If marrying the king of the Kouretes is the key, then so be it."

"You out of all people don't deserve to be so cheaply sold in affairs of the heart," Kinzie snapped.

Hylla looked at her and suddenly Kinzie knew she'd blown her cover, after all these years of lies and averted glances and strict manners and pretexts of shyness.

"You're not wearing your dress," Hylla said. "Isn't there a specific dress for the maid of honour as well?"

This was a statement, not a question based on the way Hylla said it. Still, Kinzie knew that it was a deeper question still. Hylla's language was cryptic, but it was Kinzie's language too.

"I think I'd look better in the second wedding dress," Kinzie said softly. The one that the brides of Amazon Queens wore when marrying into the royalty...

"I think it would suit you like a glove," Hylla said just as softly.

Kinzie didn't know why but she'd started crying just then. It was possible a build up from all those years of creating and maintaining that damned aforementioned cover. It may have been a flood of selfishly jealous tears, to know that Hylla wouldn't be walking towards her in that spectacular dress. Possibly longing for that second dress. All of the above, perhaps?

"Please don't," Hylla said taking Kinzie's hands. "This is politics, not a demonstration of love. I think it's safe to say that the cat's out of the bag. All of my love goes to you."

Kinzie blinked away her tears. "It's not fair to you. That you have to do this. Marry a man you don't love… This entire kingdom is built on the willpower and strength of our women, and here you are _trapped..._ "

"I'm the queen," Hylla said. "I have to do what's best for the kingdom. This fierce, unruly, passionate kingdom."

They were both quiet for a minute, Kinzie's tears drying up and Hylla's grip on her hands intensifying. Hylla's head was tilted, and that could only mean one thing. The Queen was thinking, and she was about to make a decision.

"Such as leading by example," Hylla said. She cupped Kinzie's chin in her hand and kissed her softly.


	15. I Don't Believe in Marriage

**Hi! Sorry for dissapearing, blame my life!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody.  
**

* * *

 **15: I Don't Believe in Marriage:** **"i'm a wedding planner and you don't believe in marriage"**

Silena sighed and closed the magazine shut.

"Charlie, help," she said. "I've looked at so many different shades of red today, I can't pick a bridesmaid dress. What would I look good in?"

"Anything," he said cautiously. One of his eyebrows was arched and his eyes were all squinty, like every time he knew there was a social rule to obey, but wasn't too sure of his footing.

"That _is_ the right answer," Silena smiled. "But I was kind of looking for actual guidance."

She'd been sifting through catalogues and brochures and pin boards for ages. Through some kind of child psychology handbook, her dad had decided that including Silena in the wedding planning process would make his upcoming nuptials easier for her to handle even though Angelina had been living with them since Silena was twelve and Silena absolutely loved her. Anyways, somehow, along the way, she'd been given _every single job ever._ She wouldn't mind if wifi and service was so scarce at camp. Silena had always loved weddings, her entire cabin had turned into an assembly line for center pieces yesterday, and talking about cute first dance songs was the first time she'd managed to get the new girl, Drew, out of her shell.

"I'm… I'm not too great to talk about weddings with," Charlie said clumsily.

"How come babe?" Silena frowned.

Charlie's weight shifted and he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Charlie," Silena said a bit more strictly.

"I never said anything because you're an Aphrodite kid so as a rule of thumb you guys love gushy romantic stuff and I've seen how excited you are about your dad, but…" Charlie shrugged. "I got picked on and my mom got called a whore because my parents weren't married. When my mom _did_ get married she totally lost interest in me. I think about Percy's mom who got stuck in a bad place because of a little piece of paper, or how when someone dies the first suspect is the spouse… I don't know, I just don't get the point of marriage."

Silena's jaw dropped, but she closed her mouth.

"That's okay," Silena said. She had to force the words out of her mouth and it felt unnatural and wrong in every way. "I mean, everyone's allowed to have their own opinion."

"Seriously?" Charlie asked. "I'm getting away with that?"

"That just took all my self-control for the day," Silena said. "Don't push it; pick a dress in here for me to order for myself."


	16. Wedding Planner

**Hi! Sorry for dissapearing, blame my life!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody.  
**

* * *

 **16: Wedding Planner,** **"i'm your wedding planner, but i'm also falling in love with you"**

"So do these kinds of things happen often?" Piper asked nervously, trying to busy herself to avoid looking Jason in the eye. If she did, she'd crumble. He'd be too handsome in his legionnaire dress, freshly shaved and armour polished. Too handsome, and too... far.

"Weddings?" Jason said. "Geez, Pipes. You'd be out of a job if they didn't."

Piper rolled her eyes.

"I meant more specifically. Praetors marrying other praetors," Piper said. "You know… what you and Reyna are doing right now?"

"Oh that. Yes, it does," Jason said. "I mean, we spend so much time together on a daily basis, just trying to keep the city in one piece. There's quite a bond that comes out of that. Reyna knows me better than anyone in the world. She's my best friend and I don't know where or what I would be without her."

"Mmm-hmm," Piper said as she fluffed out the bouquets of hyacinths and honeysuckle and lilies that acted as a centerpiece for each table in the reception area. They looked great. It pained Piper to say it but this would be a really… _nice_ wedding. Beautiful, even. Fuck, she was too good at her job. At least it would look great on her resume- just like Annabeth had said to rope Piper into planning the most important wedding in New Rome as a gift from the Greeks.

"But it's mostly bureaucratic at this point," Jason said.

Piper's hands fumbled and she unwittingly swatted a vase off the table.

" _What?"_

"Let me give you a hand," Jason said kneeling by the debris.

"No, no, no," Piper said. "Talk Superman, what's this about bureaucracy?"

Jason looked stunned. She hadn't called him Superman in ages. Since… well, since this whole wedding planner and groom thing had gotten too close for her comfort and she'd started paddling in the opposite direction, uphill a river of shitty feelings and repressed emotions and inside jokes from the brief six months they'd shared as the Giant War unfolded. And then _poof,_ Jason had been gone, back to the life of a leader and a legionnaire and a son of Jupiter, far away from any nerdy jokes that Piper could possibly crack.

"It's traditional for two praetors to marry one another," Jason said. "It preserves our senatorial status in case we'd ever need to step in as acting officials. At best if a couple is _really_ happy, their lineage is strong which is good for the city."

"It's loveless," Piper whispered.

Jason shifted from one foot to another, as if Piper had hit a sore spot. "Not entirely. Reyna _is_ my best friend. I probably would have ended up spending the rest of my life with her anyways. Just… just not in a marital, romantic way. I mean, maybe there was a time when we were actually in love with each other, but we were young and mostly dazed from the battles and the pressure, but since then I've changed and I don't know how nobody else sees the way she looks at Gwen… Still, it's our duty for Rome."

"But it's loveless," Piper said. Her heart was beating. This was crazy, she'd spent eight months choreographing and organising and planning a wedding that was happening in five hours, she could not just pull this shit out of her ass. "Your entire life is loveless."

"Not my entire life," Jason said looking at her straight in the eyes.

He blushed and looked away.

"It's a really beautiful wedding and the planner- I mean, the planner did a great job," Jason said. He smiled weakly. "That helps."

"I could call it off," Piper said quietly. "Say I lost the papers of authorisation from the senate or something equally… bureaucratic."

"I dislike bureaucracy," Jason said in that gentle, even, thought-out way of his that made Piper's skin tingle and her heart beat. In this case, the second meaning helped as well.

"Me too," Piper said solemnly.


	17. Venus Wedding Planners Inc

**Well that was an embarassingly long wait, but I'm back now so here are your happy fluffy wedding drabbles.**

 **Dedication: To Maddi, who doesn't judge the amount of spam texting she always wakes up to- even if it's because a children's book about foxes hurt my feelings.**

* * *

 **16\. Venus Wedding Planners Inc,** **"** **i'm the wedding planner, and you're the best man/bridesmaid"**

"Yes, mother," Piper said, clutching her iPhone to her ear. "I'm meeting the client in ten minutes. I'm already at the coffee shop. And I have the brochures. Yes, mother, even the new ones you just handed out this morning. How would I have lost them already? You made me clean my car yesterday! By the way, are you going to reimburse me for that expensive carwash? What do you mean no? Yes, _mom,_ I brought the old brochures too- not just the new ones. Jesus mother, can't you ever call Mitchell or Lacy while they're on the job? It's not as if the company's going to fall apart because of _me._ Okay, mother. Yes I know it's rude to be on the phone if my client is coming but you're the one who- okay, never mind mother. I'll call you after my appointment."

Piper hung up her phone and let out a spectacular sigh.

Sure she'd gotten strung up in the family business as opposed to willingly embarking on the ordeal like Silena or Mitchell, Lacy or Drew- but that didn't _necessarily_ mean that she was going to sabotage weddings left and right until she got fired or burn "Venus Wedding Planners" to the ground. A crazy part of Piper even cared about her job and the hectic times she could spend with her siblings eating pizza during late nights in the office while wrapping up paperwork and licking envelopes for some pretentious cardboard invitations. Piper had even shaved her legs for this appointment, _shaved._ She looked fucking spectacular in her pencil skirt and blouse, she had her binders and her contract sheets all ready and prepped on the coffee table… Nothing could go wrong.

"Hi, you must be Piper?" Someone behind her asked.

Piper turned around and saw a woman with beautiful blond curls hand in hand with a scruffier man with sparkly green eyes. They'd dragged their wedding party with them- a guy with crutches, a girl with long black hair, a girl with tight corkscrew curls…

When she saw the blond god (man) who was introduced to her as Jason the best man, Piper spat her coffee onto her blouse.

 _Mother help,_ she thought.


	18. Ricardo

**Two chapters in a day. You know I'm sorry when. A happy advantage of Solangelo is that it made me realise that I shipped the Rachel and Nico bromance more than the couple. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **18\. Ricardo:** **"my ex just invited me to their wedding and i need you to be my date so it doesnt look like ive spent the last few years failing to get over them."**

"Rachel I am far too gay for this," Nico said. "And by 'this' I mean the church _and_ the being-your-date."

Still, he didn't pry his hand away from hers as they walked into the church. Rachel congratulated herself on having beaten the life and resilience out of Nico di Angelo _years_ ago. It made things so much easier now.

"Nobody knows that," Rachel said. "Just like nobody knows that your name isn't actually Ricardo, that you're not studying orthopedic surgery on a soccer scholarship and that you work the night shift at a shelter for abused puppies hence why we leave early. Now hush, you just moved here, and even if I'm tutouring you you're shy about speaking English in public."

"Orthopedic surgery?" Nico asked. "Why the hell would I be studying orthopedic surgery."

"It is a need in today's day and age _,"_ Rachel said. "Why don't you try growing a sense of empathy and being a little more sociocentric for once?"

"You know, a better alternative to this would have been _declining_ to the invitation to attend this wedding," Nico said.

"No, that wouldn't have worked. See, that might have made Max think I'm still not over him-"

"Which you're not."

"Which I am _working on,"_ Rachel corrected.

"Rachel, you've been working on it for three years," Nico said.

"Three godawful years that fully entitle me to his open bar so I can bleed him of his stupid little New Roman trust fund one screwdriver at a time," Rachel said.

"Apollo said no drinking," Nico said. "He's waiting for that big prophecy to spew."

"Yeah, well, everything Apollo says gets me in shit so even if you're sleeping with his kid, I'm going to have to ask you to shut up about him," Rachel grumbled.

"A) Rude. Not only rude, but uncalled for actually, Will and I are about much more than sex contrary to popular belief. B), Max doesn't even deserve you to put on your nice green dress and show up at his crummy bureaucratic loveless wedding," Nico said. "I mean, you look _really_ good."

Rachel smiled a bit, but it was a little sad. It was true that Max was an asshole. Son of Mars from New Rome, they'd hit it off pretty good when Camp Jupiter had nearly invaded Camp Half-Blood. That would have been an awkward "and that kids is how I met your mother", but luckily that wasn't going to be a problem since after one year of dating, he'd lost his cool about Rachel refusing to let him touch her because of her oracle vows and had told her she'd never be able to find a relationship before disappearing back to New Rome, never to frequent the East coast again.

He _was_ an asshole. But maybe what Rachel had really been doing ever since that nasty breakup was mourning the romantic box she'd broken down by being the oracle, and not Max himself.

"I came here to get drunk," Rachel said. "Stop making me think di Angelo."

But she squeezed his hand in the silent kind of thank you their friendship would allow to pass through. If anyone knew anything about breaking boxes on the sex, love and rock and roll shelf; it was Nico.

"Ricardo no parlo inglese," Nico replied.


End file.
